Survey Authentication Challenges During a Geriatrics Knowledge Assessment Pilot

作者：Apoorva Rangan, Mengru Wang, Malvika Varma, Yochai Shavit, Stephen R. Pelletier, E. Nola Sundquist, Deborah M. Kado, Andrea Wershof Schwartz · 发表于：Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1111/jgs.70616 · 研究领域：Survey Methodology and Nonresponse、Retirement, Disability, and Employment、Aging and Gerontology Research

ABSTRACT Background In this methodological Brief Report, we describe a multi‐institutional survey authentication challenge encountered during pilot deployment of the Age‐Friendly Knowledge Assessment Tool (AF‐KAT), a geriatrics knowledge assessment for graduating medical students. Methods The AF‐KAT is a 20‐item case‐based multiple‐choice assessment aligned with the Geriatrics 5Ms framework and American Geriatrics Society minimum geriatrics competencies for graduating medical students. The survey was distributed electronically to graduating medical students at three US medical schools during the 2023–2024 academic year using institutional listservs and included a financial incentive. Following survey deployment, an unexpectedly large volume of responses demonstrated patterns inconsistent with medical student responses. A structured multi‐institutional authentication process was used to develop exclusion criteria and adjudicate responses. Results A total of 1029 survey responses were received. Exclusion criteria identified responses with reimbursement codes not linked to institutional email correspondence ( n = 934), graduation years inconsistent with the intended 2024 cohort ( n = 352), duplicated qualitative responses ( n = 76), unrealistic intended specialty responses ( n = 183), duplicated IP addresses ( n = 74), and completion times under 180 s ( n = 43). Exclusion criteria were not mutually exclusive. Following multi‐reviewer adjudication, 88 responses remained in the fi...